The present invention generally relates to a method and a system for recommending an available network protocol to the user. More particularly, it relates to a method and system for recommending an available network protocol with an operative connection between a client computer and at least one peripheral device.
As networking becomes more common, many users are now connecting multiple peripheral devices to multiple network environments with one or more client computers. This arrangement allows a number of client computers to share the services of these peripheral devices, which can be multiple printers, for example. Such client computers can be personal computers or other computers and will be referred to herein simply as a client. While network experts can easily perform the installation task of connecting these multiple printers to the clients, the installation task is generally too challenging for a typical user. The installation task requires decisions on various topics, such as network protocol or connection types to use, which may be information not generally known to a typical user.
One prior solution provided the user with multiple software tools along with a manual for installing a printer for each particular environment. The user usually had to consult the manual to determine which software tool should be used for the installation process. This method, however, was very time-consuming for the user, and the users were generally confused about what type of protocols or connections they had.
Another prior solution was to provide a single software program. But this solution usually required the user to make a manual choice of the protocol or connection types for a given network configuration, which was information generally not known to a typical user. In addition, this solution also assumed that the user had an adequate understanding of networking to accomplish the installation. Generally, an installation process requires the user to understand the capabilities of the network printer, the nature of the networking environment the client is connected to, and the configuration of the client.
Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide an improved method for recommending an available network protocol that is valid and operational during the installation process.
Still another object of the present invention is to provide an improved method for recommending an available network protocol that makes the installation process more user friendly and better fitted for a typical user.
Yet another object of the present invention is to provide an improved method for recommending an available network protocol that makes the installation process less time consuming for the user.
The present invention generally relates to a method and a system for recommending an available network protocol to a user during an installation process. More particularly, it relates to a method and system for recommending an available network protocol with an operative connection between a client computer and at least one peripheral device. The present invention recommends an available network protocol that is operational and valid to the user during the installation process. As a result, the installation process will be less cumbersome for a typical user. In addition, the present invention also avoids having the user needlessly search or install network protocols that are not even available or operational.
The present invention provides a method and system that includes first determining whether a first network protocol in a network protocol list having all possible types of network protocols is supported by the client computer and the peripheral device. If the first network protocol is supported, the next step is to verify communication between the client computer and the peripheral device over the first network protocol. If, on the other hand, the first network protocol is not supported, the next step is to determine whether a next network protocol in the network protocol list is supported by the client computer and the peripheral device. A network protocol with verified communication will be recommended to the user.